Book review: Attack with Mikhail Tal

Mikhail Tal and Iakov Damsky. [[sterling]]11.99.
Mikhail Tal needs no introduction; the wizard who emerged in the
late 1950s as a force to complement the science of Botvinnik. This
is Mikhail Tal's last word to the chess world, some of which was
transcribed from tapes made within days of his death in 1994, and
which he did not live to complete. Damsky tells us the planned
title was Everything about attack, and rues the omission
of a planned chapter on the Queen's-side attack. The nine chapters
completed are listed below.

Each chapter contains a number of examples, for instance,
the chapter on the eighth rank contains 16 examples from games -
some rather familiar (like Levitsky-Marshall) - with four test
positions and an example complete game with the same back rank
theme. I have another book - Test your Chess IQ by
Livshits - which contains 32 such examples. What extra do you get
from the Tal/Damsky book?

Livshits' positions all have a concrete short-term
solution (say, White to play and win in 5 moves), whereas the
examples in this book are nearly all of the sort that Spielmann
calls 'real' sacrifices - being genuinely unclear or at least
requiring more judgement than calculation. The first example does
resolve inside 7 moves, but the second only clears up only after 17
moves. This sort of thing is real chess drama, and is great fun to
watch in action. Tal and Damsky also give some chatty annotation
which is mostly illuminating and engaging. Lastly, the themes are
strategic more than tactical - the back rank chapter is the only
one with an explicitly tactical theme. But all the common
sacrificial motifs are present:

Chapter

typical sacrifices

1.

The Main Indicator - the King in the Centre :

Ng5xf7, Ng5 or Bc4xe6

2.

Breakthrough in the centre:

breaks e5 and d5

3.

The assault ratio (ie. development advantage):

"launching" in e.g. Nf3-g5 Ng3-h5

4.

Invasion trajectories (ie. lines of approach):

diagonals a1-h8 and b1-h7/a2-f7

5.

Lines of communication (ie. interference):

obstructive sacrifice e5-e6

6.

Outposts:

e.g. N on e5

7.

Eliminating defenders:

Rd1xNd7

8.

At the Royal Court (ie. 7th and 8th ranks):

9.

Destroying the Fortress walls:

Be3xh6, Bc3xg7, Bd3xh7+

Let me say immediately: the book is warm and witty, and the
examples are hugely enjoyable. So, if the material and ideas listed
above are unfamiliar to you, then I'd grab it. Criticisms? It's
churlish to carp about such an enjoyable book, and since Tal's
death, a moving one, but I'll mention one or two.

It was never going to be everything about
attack. It is missing the concrete examples (for which see
Livshits), and also the rather slow attacks with a closed centre
that need not require a sacrificial outburst. It also lacks any
reference to the various 'natural histories' of attack that have
gone before (for example, the works of Vukovic), and so the
examples may be hard to integrate in your mind. But alongside these
works, AWMT has a place as a modern handbook of examples.

These are perhaps things that the authors would freely
concede, because they never claimed more for their book. But they
did say their "aim... of suggesting: where and on which paths
in the dense forest of variations are concealed those ...indicators
... that will allow you ... to switch ... to an attack". This
is an enticing prospect: to accompany these master physicians in
their diagnoses. How far is this aim realised? My view is that the
book fails here. I got an early impression that these
indicators include, firstly, a lead in development, and
secondly, open lines or the capacity to open them, but after this,
it is all rather post hoc. We meet often comments
like:

"it turns out that now this is possible"
(p.12)

"The correct evaluation of the position is only
established by the typical attacking device carried out by the
ex-world champion" (p.19)

So, although the examples are rich, the explanations are
not very crisp. Tal says at one point (p.8) "we are talking
here rather abstractly, rather in the spirit of Mikhail
Moiseyevich" (Botvinnik), and while this book is full of Tal's
charm, it lacks Botvinnik's science.

Lastly, the test positions I often found at once too hard
and too easy. Let me give you an example:

This is the first test position from the first chapter. It may take
you half a second to spot the only sacrificial idea, namely Nxf7,
it may take you forever to judge it properly. The game is actually
from Tal-Simagin (given below), and clearly his Grandmaster
opponent misjudged the sacrifice. I don't know if he missed Tal's
fifteenth move, but the game was not decided until move 45.

Almost all the examples are, like this one,
successful examples - a sacrificial opportunity arises
and is discovered to be sound. Only by comparing cases where
sacrifices succeed and where they fail will we start to develop the
judgement, and start to identify the indicators, for
ourselves.

The whole game shows at once the strength an weaknesses
of the book: a wonderfully dramatic attack, but could the reader
emulate it?